You’re going to hear about a lot of “firsts” regarding the 2011 SEJ Miami conference. Come to Miami to be a part of it all.

The Society of Environmental Journalists has never had an annual conference in Miami, or in Florida, or — for that matter — in a subtropical climate.

We’ve never had our conference surrounded by marine features like turquoise surf, world-famous beaches, and one of the largest reef systems in the world.

We’ll be saturated in the Florida sunshine where the average October high temperature is 83 degrees. That’s not a typo: 83.

Spend an evening on South Beach as an SEJ VIP at what may be America’s most high profile eco-fashion show ever, and learn what the fashion industry is doing to address sustainability.

Meet journalists from throughout the hemisphere — Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and more — and learn what issues they face reporting on the environment.

There’s only one Everglades. Even if you’ve been to America’s "river of grass," you’ll never have a chance to see it like we’ve arranged.

And there’s no city in the world like Miami, with its fascinating mix of cultures, Miami Fusion cuisine, people watching, art galleries, and eye-popping South Beach nightlife.

The conference agenda will be jam-packed with global issues. Panels will take place overlooking — and only a few feet above — the Atlantic Ocean and famed Biscayne Bay. So, icons of sea-level rise, acidification, climate change, overfishing, pollution, urban issues, and maritime debates will literally be right outside the massive windows of the InterContinental Miami hotel.

Bring your pad and pen!

Our mission this year is to invite speakers who will deliver such newsmaking information that you’ll be filing stories left and right from this conference. We’ve added writing workshops that will be especially appealing to freelancers. And we’ll have special arrangements for broadcasters.

Our South Florida field trips will be remembered for years. Another first, we’re taking a group of journalists into the waters just outside Aquarius, the world’s only undersea research lab nine miles off Key Largo. We’ll dive on a reef in a marine protected area. We’ll tag sharks. We’ll zoom into the Everglades on airboats and muck around in swamp up to our waists. We’ll try to catch wild pythons. We’ll witness a category 5 hurricane roar inside a wind tunnel near the National Hurricane Center. We’ll see, and maybe dine at, one of the most advanced aquaculture facilities in the world. We’ll even take journalists catch-and-release fishing the old-fashioned way — on boats that leave right from the hotel docks. We’ll take you touring lovely Biscayne Bay in an eco-friendly yacht. And after the conference, we’re working on trips that include Cuba, the fascinating Florida Keys, and more.

The Miami Planet[9] is an online newspaper from University of Miami's Knight Center for International Media and its School of Communication in collaboration with Florida International University and Miami Dade College. The Planet is being devoted to reporting the highlights of the SEJ Miami conference and publishing scores of stories on South Florida and its environment.

[10]SEJ-Miami

One of the nation’s leading research universities, the University of Miami[11] is a vibrant and diverse community with 15,600 undergraduate and graduate students from around the world.

Founded in 1925, UM has grown from its main campus in Coral Gables to include the Miller School of Medicine campus near downtown Miami, the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science campus on Virginia Key, and two campuses in southwest Miami-Dade County. The University’s vast and energetic research enterprise attracted nearly $339 million in external funding in FY 2010. In 2010, U.S. News & World Report recognized UM as the No. 1 school in Florida, ranking it No. 47 in its listings of “America’s Best Colleges”; it also cited several of its programs in “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

Led by President Donna E. Shalala, UM is accelerating its progress in all key areas — teaching and learning, the discovery of new knowledge, and service to the South Florida region and beyond.